A Move To The Country

Create an English country garden outside your own back door. Start by planting your granny’s favourite plants, says Adrienne Wild.

- Adrienne Wild

Even if you live in the suburbs and your house is modern, it’s easy to create an authentic country-style cottage garden if you look to your granny’s garden for inspiration. Informality is the key, with sweeping lawns and exuberant borders stuffed with plants all jumbled together.

At the heart of it are perennials with nectar-rich blooms that attract butterflies and other wildlife. Old fashioned favourites are aquilegias, lupins, peonies, foxgloves, hollyhocks and dianthus (pinks). Most perennials are easily grown from seed and young plants will bloom within three months.